Crowdsourcing, Computers and a Really #BadHairDay

At my house Disney Channel is on all the time. It’s a channel that carries a nice message to my children in every show. Tonight at 8/7 Central, the Original Disney Channel Movie launches. A movie about our social media age, being true to yourself and laughing out loud.

We’re big Amy Duncan fans (Good Luck Charlie) and Leigh-Allyn Baker takes that character and morphs her into a character that is tough on the outside and yet you still come to love. Baker takes off the makeup, changes her hair color and plays the role of Liz with flair.

Joining Leigh-Allyn Baker, is Laura Marano (Austin and Ally). Bad Hair Day is the first time Baker and Marano have worked together, but there is an instant chemistry that makes Bad Hair Day a movie to remember.

The age of technology is upon us. It seems no matter how small the child, they interact or know something about the technological world. Heck, I go to my kiddos for advice or tips when I’m in a pickle.

Monica (Laura Marano), is a high school senior who can’t seem to make a decision for herself. She crowd sources every decision in life, including whom she should date, what she should wear to Prom and how to wear her hair. She takes crowd-sourcing to a whole new level with her computer brilliance and ability to generate online polls at a whim.

Prom’s the next day and she’s tracking minute-by-minute votes in her campaign to be prom queen.

It’s the eve of the big dance, and Monica isn’t about to make the wrong choice. Crowd-sourcing has already told her what to wear, from dress to shoes. The only thing left is how to wear her hair. It’s a long night as she changes her hair with a plethora of hair styling products, but the results are in and she goes to bed knowing which style it will be.

Then, morning arrives and Monica wakes up to some really bad hair mojo.

Her morning gets even more wild when Liz (Leigh-Allyn Baker) arrives at the door announcing she’s FBI and looking for a stolen necklace. It’s the one decision Monica made on her own, buying the sought after necklace from a Pawn Shop.

To complicate things further, Monica is called by the DMV to schedule her driving test that day. Monica has no way to get to the DMV, but needs her license, so she cuts a deal with Liz–“I’ll give you the necklace if you take me shopping…”

The shenanigans just keep coming. Monica and Liz hit the mall to replace Monica’s melted prom dress, broken shoes and do something about her bad hair mojo.

There is humor in hair salons and jabs at paying $540 for sunglasses, while back home Pierce (Christian Campbell), breaks into to Monica’s home in search of his stolen necklace. Perhaps the name Pierce isn’t coincidental, as he reminds me very much, right down to the British accent, of Pierce Bronson, my image of James Bond.

Both Monica and Liz are great characters. Monica is perfection to a tee, without the ability to make a decision, while Liz is frumpy and hard, never asking for any direction in her life.

Liz is very much like many moms, scolding the boys to cut their hair, critical of how they dress and terrified of social media, especially the app Monica uses to divulge every where about.

The film is Disney so there’s no crude language or scenes that have you running for the remote. There is the fact that Monica’s mother left her family when Monica was three, which brings to life why Monica can’t make a decision on her own.

In speaking with Leigh-Allyn Baker, her one hope is that we all take away from Bad Hair Day is:

Your identity, who you are comes from the inside. It doesn’t come from what’s out here. That’s the main message I think. A lot of people like to toss around “believe in yourself ” but this is more than believing in yourself. It’s knowing yourself and being okay with who you are and not looking for approval from others and knowing when to call for backup. There’s two ladies — there’s two lessons. They start out as polar opposites in this film and then through this crazy day with each other, they learn from each other how to fill in their weak spots. They really do help each other grow immensely.